The present invention relates to directed energy weapons and, in particular, it concerns directed energy weapons based on fiber lasers.
It has been proposed to use high energy laser (HEL) radiation focused on a target as weapon, both in offensive and defensive roles. Various types of lasers suitable for generating high energy beams are problematic for practical implementations of a weapon due to their reliance on dangerous chemicals or requirements for bulky hardware.
Fiber lasers, i.e., lasers in which the active gain occurs within an optical fiber, are compact and avoid use of dangerous chemicals. Although output powers of more than 1 kW are available, output from a single fiber laser using current technology does not provide sufficient output power for implementation of an optimal directed energy weapon.
Various attempts have been made to combine multiple fiber lasers in a directed energy weapon so as to provide a desired total power output. Examples include: U.S. Pat. No. 7,970,040 and WO 2012/062399.